Word processing... Word? Did it come with anything?

Quick dumb question... I need to write a new resume from scratch and am wondering if my new macbook pro came with any software to do that with? Also, obviously I would need this to be in a word or pdf format so people on PC's can read it. Thank you.... Oh, if it didn't come with any software like that, what and where should i get??

You could get:

- iWork" suite of programs from Apple
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Office for the Mac

These all cost money. Here's a few free programs to try:

http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html
http://www.abisource.com/download/

HTH,

- Nick

thank you, whats their rating best to worst and why? also price of each? thanks. suggested retailers? i know.... i ask for a lot.... TIA

michalik.piotr said:

thank you, whats their rating best to worst and why? also price of each? thanks. suggested retailers? i know.... i ask for a lot.... TIA

Click to expand...

I edited my post...adding some free programs as well.

As far as cost for the purchasable programs...why not go to each website & check on your own??? Or go to your favorite online retailers...and check their prices?

- Nick

Nick, but then that would mean I'd have to do WORK instead of having everything handed to me while I sit here with my thumb up my bum.

Thank you and thank you for the free links. Ok, how bout this.... which one of the free links do you recommend (you know, I don't want to download and try all of them).

Like Windows with its Notepad, Macs do come with a free basic text writing program. It's called TextEdit and can be found in your Applications folder. It is a basic word processing program but it does allow you to choose between plain text and rich text formatting and if you didn't already know Macs have PDF creation function built into the OS.

This means that just about any program can save as a PDF. If you want to do some more advance word processing then you will need to try out some of the programs Nick has listed. If you are looking for something similar to the feel of Microsoft Office then you should try out OpenOffice. OpenOffice can also save in Word .doc format also.

michalik.piotr said:

Nick, but then that would mean I'd have to do WORK instead of having everything handed to me while I sit here with my thumb up my bum.

Thank you and thank you for the free links. Ok, how bout this.... which one of the free links do you recommend (you know, I don't want to download and try all of them).

Click to expand...

Yes you got what I was suggesting. At some point it will help you decide what you want...if you do a little of the research yourself.

As far as price...I'm in the United States (I'm not sure if you are)...so prices will be different if you are outside the US.

As far as which program. I've always used MS Office (MS Word). Some folks like iWork (less expensive than MS Office, unless you get a special deal on MS Office). I haven't used any of the free programs...so you might want to download them...or visit each website to see if they will meet your needs.

HTH,

- Nick

Since I got my MBP a few months back, I've been using OpenOffice.org at my Office Suite on this computer and I love it. I frequently store .doc's on Dropbox and open then in Word on Windows and OpenOffice on the Mac, and it works perfectly. No problems. And its free. I actually like OpenOffice a lot better than MS Office in a lot of ways. But seriously, what I love most about it is the price.

I have both Office and iWork and generally I prefer Office. Pages just isn't there yet, byt Keynote is better than PowerPoint.

Numbers just isn't compatible enough with Excel for my needs at this point.

I've always found the free apps to be fugly and if I wanted that I'd be using Windows or Linux.

schweb said:

I've always found the free apps to be fugly and if I wanted that I'd be using Windows or Linux.

Click to expand...

I agree when it comes to OpenOffice but it's free so it doesn't matter to me much. You do get what you pay for but NeoOffice is a better looking version of OpenOffice. It's not exactly the best looking either but it looks better than OpenOffice if a person cares about that sort of stuff.

I've just gotten used to using NeoOffice because it was better than OpenOffice on the Mac back in the beginning and I continue to use it over OpenOffice because it works for me so I don't have much reason to switch to OpenOffice. Their files are interchangeable so it's easy to go back and forth between the two. I do have both installed though.

If you want the best go with Office 2008.

Or if you can wait a few months Office 2010 Mac is coming out later this year. It's looking pretty nice from what I've seen so far.

Office: Mac 2008 has resume templates in the Microsoft Project Gallery.

I prefer iWork to the other office suites. It really comes down to personal preference, but I would look into MS Office or iWork for paid suites and Open Office for a free program.

I got iWork for 29 bucks which is very reasonable.